In support of Japan's struggle to overcome its recent tragedies, the latest Tea and a Book selection here is Junichiro Tanizaki's novel The Makioka Sisters along with Harney & Sons's Genmaicha. The Makioka Sisters began as a serial novel in 1943 and details the saga of the four young women of the Makioka family and their various paths in love and life. Tanizaki was born in 1886 and throughout his twenties was fascinated by American and Western culture. Following the sobering devastation of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, however, he began to appreciate more native Japanese traditions and to include them in his literary works. Genmaicha is a green tea blend with rice kernels roasted right along with the Bancha leaves, pairing both integral elements of the Japanese diet. The pace of The Makioka Sisters is slow and carefully crafted with detail -- and it's definitely not a racy page-turner. A feminine mindset obviously dominates the plot, but there is something richly steeped and curiously compelling about the book that lends itself to the Genmaicha tea as well.
Japan continues to reel from the horrors of the quake, tsunami and nuclear complications; the country is resilient and resourceful, but still clearly in distress. America's outpouring of aid has been strong, though, and in reading The Makioka Sisters it's remarkable and encouraging to reflect how even though Japan was once a mortal enemy of the United States, there is that mutual support now -- just as Japan came to America's aid following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
(Pictured: The Makioka Sisters, Junichiro Tanizaki (Vintage Books edition, 1995)
